Virgil Abloh named Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton

A swathe of rumours surrounding the vacant position of Louis Vuitton Men’s Wear Designer have been confirmed with the appointment of Off-White head-honcho, Virgil Abloh, as their new Artistic Director for Men.

Virgil was brought on board by Michael Burke, Chief Executive at Louis Vuitton. He has long been an influence in Abloh’s career, serving as chief exec with Fendi when Abloh and Kanye West were interning there together.

“Virgil is incredibly good at creating bridges between the classic and the zeitgeist of the moment,” said Michael Burke, chief executive of Louis Vuitton. The two men first met about 12 years ago when Mr. Abloh spent six months interning at Fendi with Kanye West, where Mr. Burke was then the chief executive.

“Virgil is incredibly good at creating bridges between the classic and the zeitgeist of the moment,” Burke said to the New York Times. “I was really impressed with how they [Abloh and West] brought a whole new vibe to the studio and were disruptive in the best way. Virgil could create a metaphor and a new vocabulary to describe something as old-school as Fendi. I have been following his career ever since.”

Abloh’s rise as the (now former, we guess?) head of Off-White has been stratospheric in the past couple of years, where the brand has become something of a poster-child for the ever-increasing collusion between the worlds of haute streetwear and high-fasion. Since launching Off-White in 2013 with no formal education in Fashion, he’s collaborated with Nike, Jimmy Choo and Moncler, had his collections cause literal riots at their openings, and won the Urban Luxe Award at the 2017 British Fashion Awards.

Abloh will relocate with his family to Paris to take up the role with the LVMH group.